Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Personally, I would have been appalled if the LDS Church had stood by and done nothing in California's struggle over gay marriage. California is such an influential state nationally and is closely tied to Mormonism both because of the half-million Mormons living there and its proximity to Utah. I applaud the Church and its role in this victory, although I think we'll eventually lose this war, unfortunately.

The thing that bothers me most about discussions regarding homosexuality is the assumptions pro-gay people make about the nature of same-gender attraction, that it is a normal human trait that should be tolerated and celebrated. No way! It's a temptation of both the flesh and the spirit that must be resisted, period. I'm willing to concede that it may be one of the toughest of all the temptations, but it's still in that category.

In my humble opinion, any Mormon who is pro gay marriage and fails to see how this movement's success—notwithstanding the temporary setback in California—reflects our civilization's fast-disappearing godliness and spiritual well-being has been misled by worldly influences and does not fully understand and/or accept Mormon theology. Repent and get yourself reconverted, for hell's sake. For more on that, I refer you back to that Sunstone essay I wrote called "Why Mormonism Can't Abide Gay Marriage."

The backlash against Mormons has actually been a little worse than I expected for this relatively early round of the battle, and it's a foreshadowing of how things are going to get progressively worse for us over the next few decades. I think our golden time in the media pretty much drew to a close during the Mitt Romney campaign, when the prospect of having a Mormon president brought out latent anti-Mormonism—in a sense, we overstepped our bounds, in the minds of many people. And now we will be increasingly vilified due to polygamy, baptizing holocaust victims, fighting gay marriage, etc. Our PR has peaked, and now we're headed down the other side of the mountain into a shadowy valley.

There's a certain pro-gay video clip that's circulating widely. I interpret it as rank manipulative propaganda by someone who I'm sure believes what he's saying but is grossly deceived and deep in error. The gay movement has sold the majority of white people in this country on a false, distorted view of what homosexuality really is and has already successfully established it as a noble, acceptable alternative to heterosexuality. It's just a matter of time before the legislation catches up, which it inevitably eventually will, probably on a national scale that will override all the individual states who've tried to erect firewalls.

If someone can show me how Mormonism can theologically and spiritually accommodate homosexuality, I'm all ears. But the old "Jesus said love everyone" line won't work, because I believe that Jesus says the same thing to those who've chosen to give in to their same-gender attractions as he did to the woman taken in adultery: "Go and sin no more." And we must maintain that same attitude or cease to be Mormon.

1 comment:

mandi
said...

I want to thank you for your unwavering stance on gay marriage. I have to admit, I was starting to be swayed by the dark side. I have struggled with the concept of people being "born that way." But you're right - it's wrong, it is a sin, and should not be tolerated or accepted as something normal. I admire you for being able to take so much flack for this, and not backing down. It has truly helped me solidify my own views.

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About Me

I'm the author of seven books on Mormonism, including Mormon-themed humor and fiction. I'm the great-great-great-grandson of a Mormon apostle who had more than forty wives. I served an LDS mission in Melbourne, Australia, and worked as an editor at the LDS Church's official Ensign magazine. A graduate of Emerson College and Brigham Young University, I cofounded and edited the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum and the satirical Mormon newspaper The Sugar Beet. A Hodgkin's disease survivor and the oldest of ten siblings, I live with my wife and five children in Provo, Utah.